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A new survey released by Internet security firm Trend Micro today found that smartphone users are more worried about losing their phones or the personal data on them than being alarmed of the threat of Web infections or phishing software that is be increasingly found on them. (Full Report Powerpoint)

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For all those doubting Thomas’ out there that have the belief that the anti-virus companies use scare tactics to create business, get over it (you are so used to recent Government Administrations trying to give you religion through color coded threat alerts), and the other perspective in which I, a IT Pro live by – it’s bad and a threat until proven good. I never under-estimate the creativity and drive by the malicious hackers to try and force their misery upon the rest of the world.

That being said…

• 44 percent said that surfing the Internet on a smartphone (which may not be equipped with security software) is just as safe, if not safer, as surfing on a PC.
• 23 percent of smartphone owners use the security software already installed on their smartphone.
• 20 percent said they don’t think security software on their phones would be very effective because they see limited risk in smartphone surfing.

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In July, the ShadowServer Foundation, a group specializing in sharing information about botnets, reported that the number of identified botnets grew from 1500 to 3500 in the last two years. Each of those 3500 networks could contain several thousands of compromised PCs–and any given PC could be infected by multiple bots.

Spammers pay big money to have a bot blast their message to thousands of machines; in particular, Canadian pharmaceutical spam is big right now.

In raw numbers, the United States and China are the homes of most of the bot-infected machines, says Jose Nazario, manager of security research at Arbor Networks. So in case you are wondering where all this malware is coming from – look no further than across the street or down the hall.

[tip]Microsoft provides a free Malicious Software Removal Tool. One version of the tool, available from both Microsoft Update and Windows Update, is updated monthly; it runs in the background on the second Tuesday of each month?and reports to Microsoft whenever it finds and removes an infection.[/tip]

You can use another version of the Malicious Software Removal Tool, downloadable at Microsoft’s site, at any time, and you should run the utility if you notice a sudden change in your PC’s behavior.

[note]Note: The version of the tool delivered by Microsoft Update and Windows Update runs in the background and then reports if an infection is found. To run this tool more than once a month, use the version on this Web page or install the version that is available in the Download Center.[/note]

For the IT Pros & tech savvy do-it-your-selfers who want to disable the Microsoft reporting, see here

Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool privacy statement -http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/linkid=113995.

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